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Organizers have cancelled the annual Polar Bear Dip at Coronation Park in Oakville because of safety concerns. It's the first time in the event's 33-year history that it's been cancelled. This photo was taken in 2016. (Steve Russell / Toronto Star file photo)

On New Year’s Day, Kassandra Wu was all dressed up with no place to swim.

Proudly sporting her polar bear onesie on what she called the only day of the year she could acceptably wear it in public, Wu was all set to cheer on her brother and his four kids Monday in the annual Polar Bear Dip at Coronation Park — until it was cancelled for the first time since 1985.

“It’s the New Year’s Day tradition that we have — we meet up here and then we go for food at their house later,” Wu said. “I’m kind of bummed, but I get it. It’s a health and safety issue.”

The brothers who founded the event, Trent and Todd Courage, said they made the call to cancel the event when they arrived at the beach in the morning to find undercurrents had caused rocks to shift, and the ice to form on the surface in a way that would make it unsafe for the more than 700 people who had signed up to plunge in.

Organizers of the Toronto version of the event, set to occur New Year’s Day at Sunnyside Beach, cancelled their event Sunday due to frozen conditions at that beach.

The Courage brothers said they may have plowed ahead if ice was the only problem.

“We’ve been ‘frozen over’ before but we meet that challenge by breaking it up — we have volunteers down here, 30 of us breaking ice up for four or five hours and creating a passage,” Trent Courage said.

The brothers have been responsible for putting on the New Year’s tradition since 1985, and teamed up with World Vision to support their water projects 25 years ago. Since then, they have raised $1.6 million for the charity.

Despite the cancellation, at least $100,000 more has already been raised for this year’s event.

Michael Messenger, president and CEO of World Vision, was set to do the dip for the ninth time this year.

“What’s amazing about it for me is it’s a zany thing to do . . . but it’s for a fantastic cause,” Messenger said. “We made the right decision today to cancel it for safety reasons but you know for the children we’re supporting in the western part of Africa, they can’t cancel the challenges they have.”

Would-be dippers were disappointed about the event cancellation, but eager to make the best of a sunny holiday.

From an icy plunge off a Halifax wharf to a mass beach dip near Victoria, hardy Canadians across the country celebrated the new year on Monday with polar bear swims. (The Canadian Press)

Ten-year-old Pierce Aspinall came with his family from Houston to visit family for the holiday. He was looking forward to doing the dip for the first time.

“I would like to see people go in the freezing cold lake,” he said, taking a break from throwing a ball with his dad and brother. That said, he’s happy with the backup plan — Tim Hortons.

Virginia Stevens brought most of her family to the Polar Bear Dip — including her cousin, sister-in-law, nephew and friends.

“We’re Filipinos, we’re tough,” she said. “We’re disappointed but hey, there will be other Polar Dips, so hopefully next year they will be able to do it.”

Grinning broadly, she added that the family would stay indoors for the rest of the day and enjoy leftovers from their New Year’s celebration the night before.

The Courage brothers said they look forward to carrying on the tradition next year. They still remember the early days of the event, when they’d set up in the morning while fretting about whether anyone would turn up.

They always did.

“We’re working away and then all of a sudden it’s almost like an onslaught of human or polar bear zombies just descending onto the beach,” Trent said.

Polar Bear dips still occurred in many cities and towns across Canada, including Saint John and Calgary. Some Torontonians who planned to participate in the Sunnyside dip took to social media instead, posting videos of bathing-suit snow angels with the hashtag #daretodip.

The city continues to experience frigid weather.

On Tuesday, windy conditions will continue with a mix of sun and cloud. The daytime high will be -7 C and a low of -12 C. Minus double digit numbers will be back in the middle of the week. It’ll be cloudy with 60 per cent chance of flurries and a high of -10 C on Wednesday. Temperatures will dip down to -17 C in the evening.

Temperatures will drop Thursday and Friday with an expected high of -15 C, Environment Canada forecasts. Evenings will be much colder with temperatures dropping to -21 C and -22 C, respectively.

Relief from the bitter cold might be coming next week. The Weather Network predicts minus single-digit temperatures. It will be a high of -4 C for Monday next week and -1 C for Tuesday, they say.

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